Fandango summer mobile commerce sales more than double

Summer is blockbuster movie season. And this summer is blockbuster mobile commerce season for online and mobile movie ticket seller Fandango.

The number of Fandango app downloads increased 43% in summer 2012 versus summer 2011, the company reports. Total app downloads now stand at 26 million, it adds.

Many of the consumers downloading apps are using them to buy tickets: Mobile ticket sales rose 116% in summer 2012 compared with the previous summer, with m-commerce accounting for nearly 30% of all tickets sold, up from 23% in Q1 2012. Fandango declined to give out exact sales figures.

And that’s 30% of a lot of tickets, as this summer has been the best in the ticket seller’s 12-year history. Summer ticket sales rose more than 26% year over year, while traffic across all platforms broke previous records with total monthly unique visitors increasing more than 25% over the same time period last year, Fandango says. During the summer season, Fandango also posted its two highest-trafficked months ever with July garnering more than 41 million unique visitors, besting the previous record set in June of 35 million unique visitors.

“Fandango continues to be on a roll,” says executive vice president and general manager Rick Butler. “This summer’s record performance is a testament to our new exhibitor and portal partnerships, as well as our mobile and social innovations which have made Fandango the easiest and most convenient way to go to the movies.”

Fandango’s expanded exhibitor reach is helping fuel growth. It recently has struck deals with AMC Theatres, Regency Theatres and other chains. In addition, Fandango signed partnerships recently with MSN, Yahoo! and AOL's Moviefone, becoming the movie ticketing provider for these sites.